Supreme Court rules in favor of Westboro protesters

I'm happy about the ruling, it means that we haven't completely lost our way in this country, yet. Free speech means even assholes get to speak.

I mean, if the government started to get in the business of shutting up assholes, well, guys like OOP would never be allowed to speak (I'm joking, sorry, it just seemed to easy to throw one his way......)

The larger point in this to me is that these idiots are really a group of what, 10 or 20 people at the most?

I mean, some of their "protests" have been comprised of a few idiots holding signs.

So why do we care every time they show up at a funeral? They are such a small fringe group they don't merit even one sentence of media attention for anything they do.

 

They seek attention, yes, so the best way to deal with them is not to give them any. But being fanatics that they are, they are not going away.
Put yourself in the shoes of a family walking behind a flag-draped coffin. You look across the street and you see those signs and those idiots making a commotion.
When I was running my hometown paper, they were in the street, right in front of our office (and in front of the law office of our mayor as well, as it turned out). Our receptionist, a very sweet young lady who was also incredibly emotionally strong, was coming apart at the seams. Her husband and her brother were in Iraq at the time, and those bungholes were right in her view as she looked up from the front desk. I told her to go to the back and don't come up here until these shitbirds leave.
If it's only a handful of folks who are there protesting, their mere existence and presence is incredibly disturbing and upsetting.
(An aside, the commanding general's wife, who is one of the most remarkable women I've ever met, came into our office one day and was chatting with the receptionist and when she found out her husband and brother were over, raced around the desk to give her a big hug and spoke to her for a few minutes. She later asked me, who was that and I told her, um, that's the CG's wife. The CG and his wife are two of my favorite people of all time. He did a couple of very incredible gestures for me I will never forget and I think there are few in uniform who have spent more time in Iraq than he has).

 

I know this has been covered already, but the Supreme Court did the right thing, here.

 

Zag, I think the reason people get so bent out of shape out of all proportion to these clowns is that they are specifically targeting our soldiers, especially soldiers who are killed in combat. Regardless of how we feel about the wars we're fighting in the Middle East, these men and women are putting their lives on the line for us, and there is no more gut-wrenching moment in a person's life when they have to bury a loved one who has been killed in this fighting. And it just taps into a visceral part of us when these fuckheads take such delight in people's misery at times like that.

On a lighter note, if they really want to protest homosexuals, might I suggest they go picket some Gay Day parade in San Francisco or New York, and see how long they last. I imagine the over-under for one of them getting their ass kicked in such an event would be about five minutes, probably less. But they'd never do that, because they don't have the balls to do it. They're cowards at heart.

 

I believe strongly in the First Amendment, and to believe you have to have cases and court decisions like this. It's easy to protect popular speech, but the First Amendment needs to cover unpopular speech and ideas to have any real meaning.

The reaction to Phelps's foolish speech - and I used my freedom of speech to be critical of him - has been appropriate. Those veterans on the motorcycles and people in each community have stood firm against these people. Phelps is getting undeserved attention, but when you think about it, the families of the soldiers are getting more support than they would have otherwise.

 

Fred Phelps will die in the next 10 years, and there's not a chance in hell that he has a funeral or that his death will be publicized before he's already buried.

You know they've thought of that.

 

These wackos' First Amendment rights were upheld.

I hope somebody who believes in the Second Amendment loads up his Glock or assault rifle and has some target practice.

God Hates Assholes Who Use Religion To Further Their Politlical Beliefs.

 

It runs the chance of happening every day in D.C., each time a politician opens his or her mouth.

 

I vehemently disagree that ignoring them is the thing that would harm their cause the most. No, instead, two really good newspapers ought to assign to WBC its most bitter, dogged, firey sports writers they have on the beat to compete with one another.

 

beautiful

 

The irony of it is - these assholes couldn't do this if soldiers hadn't fought wars in the past to keep this country a free country.

But again, this is such a fringe group and they all seem to be related, we need to just tell them to go fuck themselves and move on with our lives.

 

In that case, people should just go to their 'church' on Sundays, or whatever day they have services, and protest outside.